News Releases from Region 6

The Bonds Company Fined for Violating the Clean Water Act

(DALLAS – July 2, 2012) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined The Bonds Company of Magnolia, Arkansas, $6,000 for violating federal Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations at three of its oil production facilities. Federal inspections at the facilities found numerous violations including: Personnel working at two of the facilities had no training on discharge procedure protocols, no training on applicable pollution control laws, rules and regulations, and training records were not maintained for three years as required by federal law. The inspections also found that records were not available for review and the size of secondary containment at the same two facilities appeared to be inadequate. A third oil production facility was found to have no contingency plan, inspection records were not available for review and the size of secondary containment appeared to be inadequate. As part of an Expedited Settlement Agreement with the EPA, the company has provided certification that all identified deficiencies have been corrected. The oil production facilities inspected and fined were: Curry Lease, County Road 79, Stephens, Arkansas, $2,850 Wepfer 7, Highway 79, Stephens, Arkansas, $2,750 M. A. Roberson, 3814 West Highway 160, Bradley, Arkansas, $1,400 SPCC regulations require onshore oil production facilities provide spill prevention, preparedness and response to prevent oil spills. The SPCC program helps protect our nation’s water quality since a spill of only one gallon of oil can contaminate one million gallons of water. Additional information on SPCC regulations is available at http://www.epa/gov/oilspillMore about activities in EPA Region 6 is available at http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html